ATHENS, Ga. — Nobody needed to ask Les Miles how he felt after LSU’s 20-13 victory against Georgia on Saturday.The fifth-year LSU football coach made his emotions known before he even stepped outside LSU’s locker room for his postgame press conference. The speech he gave to his players after the game could be heard through the thick walls of the visiting team’s locker room.Miles’ voice in his monologue reached a fever pitch in both volume and passion, firing up the more than 100 players he had just led to LSU’s first victory in Sanford Stadium since 1987.Then Miles finally let it officially be known how he felt after LSU’s come-from-behind victory with sweat pouring out all over his body.”Our football team — if you turn your back on them, they’re going to beat you up and steal victory,” Miles said. “They like to play. They’re competitive men. They wanted the game. I’m so proud of them — I can’t tell you.”The emotion in Miles’ voice nearly reached a boiling point on several occasions as he addressed the media. His head calmly surveyed the people in the room left and right, but his face and jaw remained as tough as ever while giving out his usual postgame quotes.Miles was about as energetic as he’s been as LSU’s coach since his memorable pregame press conference before the 2007 Southeastern Conference Championship Game, when he vehemently denied rumors he would bolt LSU to become Michigan’s new coach.”I’m going to tell you something — I saw selfless. I saw a difficult victory versus a very quality opponent, yet again on the road,” Miles said.But Miles wasn’t entirely serious after the game. He also made a few jokes and smiled at times between discussing his team’s performance.Miles even got so happy after the game he threw his hat into a crowd of LSU fans.”[Defensive coordinator John] Chavis told me, he said, ‘What you do here is when you win, you throw your hat into the crowd,'” Miles said. “I figured I haven’t been here before, maybe that’s what everybody does. So I threw my hat in the crowd.”Not many people picked LSU to win the game, despite its No. 4 ranking in both polls — the Tigers were a two-point underdog to the Bulldogs.”People bemoan style points and how we finish,” Miles said. “Let me tell you, the most important characteristic of a football team is to find a way to win.” The fiery personality Miles has become known for trickled down to his players for this game. In the locker room after the game, the players joined Miles in counting up to 20 — the number of points LSU scored in the game — as well as singing “Hey Fightin’ Tigers.” That celebration could also be heard through the walls of the locker room.”Any time anybody calls you out or challenges you to a fight, and you go in your house and you fight them, you’re going to be emotional,” said senior running back Charles Scott, who scored the game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter. “We showed our true identity tonight down here in Athens.”Senior linebacker Perry Riley said Miles is the most excited member of the LSU team when it comes to big games.”He does a great job of getting us ready to play in big games, and his energy feeds off of us, and that’s why we go out there and we play the way we play,” Riley said.The excitement carried over to the field a bit in the fourth quarter — LSU was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after senior wide receiver Brandon LaFell scored a two-point conversion after Scott’s frenzied final touchdown run.Miles said he wasn’t quite sure what happened during the series of events.”We can’t celebrate. We have too much fun at the end of these damn things,” Miles said. “I must look at film to see if we celebrated in excess. I suspect that we celebrated with each other. I hope that’s not illegal.”LSU doesn’t have a whole lot of time to celebrate its victory with No. 1 Florida heading to Baton Rouge next weekend.”We’re going to celebrate it for what it’s worth, but we also know that it’s not done,” Riley said. “We still have a lot more to accomplish this season.”But Miles may cherish this victory for a while.”It’s fun to be undefeated at this point in time,” Miles said.—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]